Palin's email snooper sent to prison

The man convicted of breaking into Sarah Palin's personal email account has been sent to prison – despite the judge's recommendation that he serve his sentence in a halfway house.

David Kernell, a 23-year-old former University of Tennessee student, was sentenced to 366 days in November. He used publicly available information to answer security questions required to reset Palin's Yahoo! email. Palin got flack at the time for apparently using the account for some official business.

Judge Thomas W Phillips said at the time that the year-and-a-day sentence would best be served in a halfway house.

But the Bureau of Prisons obviously felt differently; Kernell will serve his time in Ashland, Kentucky, the BBC reports.

Judge Phillips previously said that a halfway house, together with a criminal conviction, would be punishment enough.

Palin was back in the news yesterday after posting bizarre footage of herself clumsily reading from an autocue in response to the Arizona shootings. Her speechwriters' inclusion of the phrase "blood libel" has also been criticised. ®